Krause: Win or lose, Bruins have regained respect

Regardless of what happens tonight in Montreal, the Boston Bruins have succeeded in their most important task this year. They’ve won back that part of Boston they’d lost a few years back when the National Hockey League lost an entire season to a work stoppage.It’s no secret that hockey had dropped down to cult status in Boston this decade, and that’s absolutely unacceptable in a cold-weather city. Boston radio personality Eddie Andelman even had a term for the hard-core bloc of hockey fans who dutifully went to the FleetCenter/Boston Garden for the last five years: Hockey Krishnas.Problem was, the Hockey Krishnas would go to the Garden no matter what. But the Bruins were so far out of the picture everywhere else you needed a magnifying glass to find them. They weren’t just fourth out of four in the “major sport” category. They may have fallen below even the Revolution in the pecking order.It’s their own fault, of course. The Bruins won’t pay for talent, and their coaches, with the exception of a scant few, have been as nondescript as the players. And no matter what regime you talk about, the bottom line never changed. No talent, no coaching, few wins.That all changed with the departure of the unfortunate Dave Lewis, who – good guy though he was – never got the hang of coaching in Boston. Claude Julien, this year’s coach, understands.The Bruins, under Julien, didn’t have the luxury of having an imported “Big Three” the way the Celtics did. They did not take the NHL by storm the way the Celtics dominated the NBA this season.They flew under the radar. Where the Celtics had few major injuries to deal with, the Bruins had a ton of them, none worse than the season-ending concussion to Patrice Bergeron, perhaps their best pure scorer.The Celtics lived a charmed life, led by the indomitable Kevin Garnett. The Bruins cobbled together a season that was just good enough to make the playoffs as the eighth – and final – seed in the Eastern Conference.But here’s the irony. The Celtics, with the best record in the NBA, might earn Doc Rivers the Coach of the Year award. But if Julien doesn’t get it in the NHL, there should be an investigation.Julien is an old-fashioned, no-nonsense hockey guy who’s so unsophisticated in the ways of the media that he looks like he’s in front of a firing squad during TV interviews. But boy, can he coach.He wouldn’t let the Bruins wallow in self-pity when their players started dropping like flies. He used the “healthy scratch” list as a motivating factor, even going so far as to bench the timid (in some cases) Phil Kessel during the playoffs (Kessel may excel in shootouts, but he’s less than aggressive at times when there are opponents standing between him and the net).After the Bruins got robbed last Saturday in Montreal (a 3-2 overtime loss at the Bell Centre), he was subtle about his disgust over the refereeing, but didn’t dwell on it, and wouldn’t let his team do it, either. The Bruins came back one night later and won their own overtime victory, thrusting themselves back into the series.After sitting out two games, Kessel is playing like a man possessed. And the Bruins are playing like a team that’s hungry not just to win a series, but to win back their niche as a real professional sports team.Saturday’s win at the Garden was magic – and that’s something we haven’t been able to say about the Bruins. Suddenly, the Bruins matter again.Once upon a time, the Big, Bad Bruins owned this town in ways this current Red Sox Nation phenomenon could never approach. To see them fall as low as they have is painful.If they lose tonight, it’ll hardly matter. They’ve done their job. They’ve made themselves relevant again.And that’s not a bad year’s work.Steve Krause is sports editor of The Item.